Last name: Drury
This unusual and interesting name has its origins in the Norman English and Old French word "druerie", meaning love, or friendship, and is an example of the medieval practice of creating a surname from a nickname. By the 12th Century or so, "druerie" was also used in the concrete sense of a "love token" or "affair", or "sweetheart". The following quotation from "The Vision of Piers Plowman", illustrates the use of the word: "It is an dereworthe a drury as deere God hymselven". The development of the surname includes: Robert Druerie (1204, Lancashire), Nigel Drury (1273, Yorkshire) and Thomas Drory (1379, ibid.). The modern surname can be found as Drury, Druery, Drewery and Drewry. Among the recordings of the name in London is that of the marriage of Richard Drury and Ursula Andros, at St. Mary Magdalene, Old Fish Street, on November 28th 1562. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Alexander Druri, which was dated 1200, in the "Curia Rolls of Suffolk". during the reign of King John, known as "Lackland", 1199 - 1216. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.
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